Pad or pot sleeper for railway-tracks.



1. H. WALKER.

PAD 0R POT SLEEPER FOR RAILWAY TRACKS.

' APPLICATION FILED JAN. 6. I919.

1 ,299,879; I Patnted Apr. 8,1919.

Ina/621502? JOAH HAIGH'WALKER, OF OLD CHARLTON, ENGLAND.

PAD 0B POT SLEEPER RAILWAY-TRACKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

Application filed January 6, 1919. Serial No. 269,844.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OAH HAIGH WALKER, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 48 Little Heath, Old Charlton, Kent, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in and Relating to Pad or Pot Sleepers for Railway-Tracks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the construction of railway sleepers or ties.

The bulk of the sleepers in use in Great Britain at the present day are of creosoted timber, but the scarcity of timber, due to the war, has made it highly desirable to procure a cheap and durable substitute. Extensive experiments have been and are being made with rigid transverse sleepers, constructed of plain or reinforced concrete, to which the two rails are suitably attached.

There are also in use concrete pad sleepers of various shapes and kinds, the two pads carrying the rails being suitably connected or not as the case may be. When the pads are united the connection is generally effected by means of fixed or pivoted bars or rods, or such like. Where the pads are not connected together in pairs, the correct gage is generally maintained by means of separate attachments extending from rail to rail or chair to chair, and in some cases a compression member or strut has also been arranged between the pads.

My invention refers to the latter type of sleeper, that is to say, the pad type.

While experimenting under actual working conditions, with various kinds of such sleeper, composed of concrete, I found that there was a decided tendency for the gage to widen when a train passed over the track, this tendency, I assume, being due to the coning of the wheels on the rolling stock. Also as the pad sleepers were securely connected in pairs by means of ties, they were unable to separate, with the result that pressure was set up on the side of the pads away from the center of the track, thereby causing the said pads to settle unequally and thus widen the gage, whereby much more supervision and packing up of the roads was necessitated than is required with the usual type of track, carried on rails supported on creosoted timber sleepers.

According to my invention I make each pad of a railway sleeper or tie of greater length than width (the pad belng laid wlth its length in the transverse direction of the rail) and of such a shape that when a train passes over the rails carried thereby there w1ll be little or no tendency toward widening the gage in the track, and I obtain this by in-- clining the base of each pad relatively to the upper surface to which the rail or chair is fixed so that it slopes downward toward the center of the track on both sides of the rail support. To resist any tendency of the pads to come together and thus narrow the gage, a strut may be placed between the pads, and to resist anytendency there may be, in some cases, toward widening the gage. either accidentally or otherwise, I make provision, when and Where desired, for tying the pads independently to the strut separating them by means of pins, dowels or the like so that the gage cannot exceed a predetermined amount without such pins, dowels or the like being strained.

The application of my invention to a concrete sleeper suitable for a straight i 8% track with flat bottomed rails is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of a sleeper composed of two pads and an intervening strut.

Fig 2 is a plan of the same, and

Fig. 3 is. a cross section on reduced scale of one of the pads on the line A. B. Fig. 2.

a. a. indicates the pads supporting the rails 72. b. and 0 indicates the intervening strut. The required resistance to any tendencytoward increase of gage is supplied by H shaped dowels (l. d. which are dropped into correspondingly shaped slots formed in the ends of the pads a and the strut 0. The underside of the pads a are made as shown, to slope downward toward the center of the track. The surface of the pads and intervening strut in contact with the ballast may be smooth, or indented, serrated or otherwise roughened. If the pads be made of concrete they may be reinforced with metal bars of any desired section or formation in any of the known methods of reinforced con crete.

In the course of experiments with pad sleepers made according to my invention, I have had sleepers put into running track with variously shaped pads and intervening struts with a View to obtaining the most suitable form as regards economy, simplicity of manufacture, and minimum liability to damage when in use. I have in use in running roads at the present moment, sleepers with plain struts without tie devices between the struts and pads, sleepers with struts the ends of which are pivoted and socketed into grooves in the ends of the pads, and sleepers with pads having projections fitting into sockets in the ends of the strut and witlror without pins or other device to resist a tendency to widen the gage. It must be understood therefore that I do not necessarily confine myself to the form of pad sleeper shown in the drawing except as regards the underside of each pad being inclined downward on both sides of the rail support toward the guard rails, chairs, switch plates or such like and also forsho'ck cushi'oning pads constructed of felt, wood or other material being placed between the undersides of the rails and the top surface of the pads.

Having. now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is z A railway sleeper comprising spaced pads having their undersides inclined downwardly toward the center of the track and relatively to the surfaces supporting the rails, an intervening strut located between said pads the inner ends of the pads and the outer ends of the strut being provided with T-shap'e'd' slots, and H-shaped dowels located in said slots and connecting the pads and strut.

- J OAH HAIGH WALKER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each,- By addressing the 'Cdififii'ssi'dxier of faltnts, Washington, 11 0; 

